21 posts tagged “knitting”
Elle sent me this link, and I had to make one... It whipped up pretty quickly. If you try it, the original blog the pattern was on has an error on line 25 (at least it did when I copied the pattern), it should be:MB4, K3, P5, K5, P1, K2, P3, K2, P1, K5, P5, K3, MB4.
this is right after I finished knitting it, once it is washed once it should lay nicely flat and not ripple at the sides... I think.
she would knit like this. what a silly headline. as if grandmas don't have game (not true) and as if non-grandmas don't knit (also not true). regardless, you should check out these awesome computer game inspired knit bits.
i'm tempted to make the katamari hat for one of my kids. it looks kind of cool.
Since their birth, my kids have been gifted with a wide variety of unusual critters from us and our friends. They've got stuffed monsters (probably a couple dozen), a number of dragons, and many random odd critters such as hedgehogs, a moose, a squirrel, a prairie dog, a phoenix... (think plush stuffed animals, not taxidermy. ew.)
So it is probably no surprise that on my list of Things I Want to Knit are stuffed cephelopods and octopus, both of which i first saw on Window's blog. The person selling the knit octopus pattern (on Etsy!) also sells patterns for squid, jellyfish, starfish... I think these would go nicely with the rest of my kids stuffed critters.
Yesterday at Ikea, we found what might be the holy grail of offbeat funky stuffed toys. I give you, the trilobite. Photo found online, as my daughter has hers is in bed with her right now and I didn't want to risk waking her up just to take an original picture. She spent all day today cuddling it on the couch or using it as a pillow while she was home sick with the flu. it currently has a little (approx the size of a medium-large apple) pink stuffed elephant hidden in its zipped shut mouth, with room to spare. in the bottom picture you can see someone's fingers in the lower left corner - that should give you an idea of the size of this thing.
best. stuffed animal. ever.
here it is, the shirt from the couch, where I am going to spend my day snuggled under a red slanket, eating jello, and surfing the web. maybe I'll watch a movie today.
I got this awesome shirt at Defcon from the Jinx booth, and it is finally making its long promised fsf debut. it would be nice if Jinx had this in a girl shirt instead of unisex, but s'ok. its still a very cool shirt.
The devil hat has reached its new owner, and I must say, it looks a zillion times better on her than it did on me. The yarn may have been acquired and knit into its evil form on the west coast, but I think it knew deep in its fibers that this was never to be its final destination. It is home now.
as I have suspected for the last 7 years, Hell is in the greater DC area. you didn't really think Satan would live in California or New York, did you? :)
this week I completed three hats. this is a knitting record for me. Sure, I knit a sweater in a week once, but that was when I had a lot more free time on my hands and was super motivated to knit something for myself to wear. This week I picked up two half finished projects and completed them, AND knit up an entire hat in 4 days. So for the record, I finished
1. the devil hat (which was probably 80% done already),
2. I started a prototype hat on Wednesday at the dentist (yes, I knit while in the dentist chair, and as I mentioned before, I had plenty of time there to work on knitting) and finished that Friday night, and
3. I finished my daughters pink poodle hat that was about 50% done.
She was so funny about this hat - this summer she and I were out and I was looking for a specific yarn for another project. The store didn't have what I needed, but when I turned around she was holding a skein of this yarn and petting it like it was a bunny or something. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said "mommy, will you knit me a hat?" Of course we bought the yarn. Every time after that when I'd be knitting in the car, she would say "mommy, are you knitting my hat?" so it was about time I finished it.
yeah, every weekend is princess dress up weekend for her - she was Sleeping Beauty this time. :)
This has lingered as a work in progress for well over a year. I finished the hat portion in early summer 2006 but when I tried it on I realized that I look really terrible in red. So it got stuck in a basket, hornless, while I moved on to other projects that would actually get worn. I figured I'd eventually finish it and sell it in my etsy shop, Knytz.
Then one day a few weeks ago, my daughter was wearing her devil hat (though she calls it a scary cat hat) and I took a picture with my camera phone and sent it to some friends. It occurred to me later that one of them might like the grown up version - and it turns out they do. So I finally knit up the horns and stitched them on so this devil hat can be sent on its way east tomorrow... It is so nice to finish it at last (no more unfinished project guilt!), and I would much rather give it to a friend than sell it to a stranger.
I think I'll make myself another one (not in red) and modify the horns into cat ears. purrrrrr.
Thanks to Laura, for taking the pics in her office. Doesn't she have nice curtains?
I'm pleased to report that front load washer felting works just fine. I put the project in a pillowcase that I tied shut, and threw it in the wash with one pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Water set to hot/cold, and added 1/4 cup Woolite.
Remember, this pattern called for a wool/acrylic blend; there will still be some stitch definition that you wouldn't have with a 100% wool felted project.
So the felting was a success, but unfortunately the sizing might be an issue. I know I keep talking about the weight I've lost, but I think this might be too small even for the new thinner me. I'm trying to block it to fit, but might have to knit a whole new one in a bigger size. crap.
so I've finally finished all the knitting and seaming on Felt Up from the Naughty Needles knitting book, and its time to actually felt it. You can see how the short row shaping has nipped the waist in nicely.
I procrastinated finishing it since March because I am a felting n00b; that's right, I've never felted a project before. And I own a front load washer, not top loader. My friend Rachel is a felting pro, so I asked her to join me on a lunchtime field trip to a laundromat. Oddly she wasn't jumping at the opportunity. She encouraged me to felt it by hand at home in the kitchen sink, which has worked well for her in the past with results in just 20 minutes. So I gave it a try.
After 20 minutes of sweaty hard work over the kitchen sink I have concluded that Rachel is insane. My project is hardly any different from when I started (aside from being wet and soapy). I probably should have expected this, my yarn is only a wool blend and the pattern even says you might need to run it through two washer cycles (in a top loader) so it isn't going to felt as well as Rachel's 100% wool sink-felted projects have. Still, I can't believe I just spent 20 minutes scrubbing and kneading something I've knit in the absolute hottest soapy water I can tolerate. There is no way I'll bother trying this again, even if I do use different materials. The laundromat is only a couple blocks from the office, and I can get sushi next door.
So now Felt-Up is (hopefully) felting in my front-load washing machine, and we'll see if I actually get some results. If not, I know where I'll be at lunch tomorrow.
